Accurate thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbons are essential for analyzing processes related to liquification, transportation, processing and storage of gaseous fuels. Among the properties of interest are the compression factor, heat capacity, entropy, enthalpy and others. These properties must be known about various gas mediums which are made of a mixture of components. Such parameters are used in determining the precise makeup of storage vessels and processing equipment as well as a multitude of other applications.
These properties are generally calculated from an equation of state using so called look up tables for the particular gas medium. However, these lookup tables do not include parameters for gas mediums that are composed of a mixture of elements. Also, the accuracy of properties calculated from an equation of state depends upon the accuracy of the experimental data used in the fitting process.
The state-of-the-art technology used to measure the thermodynamic characteristics of multi-component gas mediums include the use a gas chromatograph to determine the precise chemical makeup of the medium as known to those skilled in the art. Such equipment is quite expensive to produce, thereby raising the cost of determining the thermodynamic characteristics of a multi-component gas medium.